Despite the trend in recent years to implement the use of composites, such as the CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic), in the largest possible number of components of an aircraft due to the weight savings that this material entails with respect to aluminum (the preferred metallic material used in aircraft), most aircraft manufacturers are hesitant to use carbon fiber to manufacture fittings, because their complexity makes them rather expensive to manufacture.
This is especially applicable to the fittings used for attaching vertical tail stabilizers which continue to be made with metallic materials.
The use of metal fittings as elements for attaching components made with composite materials in fuselage areas of the aircraft also made with composite materials brings forth several problems, such as their greater weight, and particularly those problems relating to the reduction of the effective skin area and to the assembly difficulties.
It is possible to manufacture fittings with composites having a shape similar to that of metallic fittings but, besides the cost resulting from the complex shape, they present, among others, the drawback that it is very difficult to achieve with this shape an optimized laminate structure able to perform the required load distribution.
The present invention aims to solve these drawbacks.